Writing tip of the week

When writing, think about what you want to say before worrying about how you’re going to say it. It’s often tempting to try to finish a sentence or paragraph by asking yourself, ‘What will sound good here?’ But that doesn’t get good results! Instead, ask yourself, ‘What do I want to say?’ or ‘What point am I making?’

Clear thinking makes for clear writing, and clear writing is much more effective than any number of fancy phrases. Also, if you make sure you know what idea or information you want to put across before you start worrying about which words or phrases to use, the whole task of finding those words and phrases becomes much easier.

If you’d like to book a confidential one-to-one session with me to work on your writing skills, please email Harriet.Castor@uwe.ac.uk
I’m at Frenchay on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.